Before you can view and import your client's transactions through the Bank Feeds Dashboard, the client must first grant your firm permission to access their sensitive financial data, accept the license agreement, and link their financial account (such as checking account, savings account, other bank account, or credit card account) to Accounting CS. This is a multi-step process that protects your firm by eliminating the liability of managing their passwords and keeping their login information secure.

Initiate account linking

These steps are to be completed by the accountant.

Click the Link Account button in either of the following locations to open the Bank Feeds - Link Account dialog.

In the Bank Feeds section of the Setup > Bank Accounts > Main tab. Verify that the correct client is selected in the upper-right corner of the screen, highlight the account to link, and then click Edit.

In the Action column of the grid in the Firm Bank Status portlet. Click the button in the row with the correct client and financial account combination.

Notes

If your firm uses Virtual Office CS or Software as a Service (Saas) to access Accounting CS and other CS Professional Suite applications, or if your firm is licensed for NetFirm CS, you will need to use your CS Professional Suite account login (Thomson Reuters ID and password) to access the Bank Feeds feature. For details, see Using your CS Professional Suite login to access Accounting CS Bank Feeds.

In the Account Holder Email Address section, select the account holder's email address. The drop-down list includes email addresses for all contacts at the selected client’s offices (all locations). If the appropriate email address is not in the list, click the Add a contact link next to the drop-down list.

In the Return Notification Email Address section, enter the email address for the staff member in your firm who should be notified when the client has finished linking their account. By default, the application enters the email address for the staff member who is logged in to Accounting CS, but you can change the email address if necessary.

Click OK.

Linking an account

These steps are to be completed by the client.

After you complete the steps above, the application sends a registration email to the client. Instruct your client to follow the steps below.

Notes

The link in the registration email to the client for this account is valid for three days. If it expires, Accounting CS invalidates the link and you will need to send a new registration email to the client.

If you send more than one registration email to the client for this account, only the link in the most recent email is valid. Each time you send a new email, Accounting CS invalidates the previous one.

Open the registration email and click the Register Now button.

Read the Software License Agreement and click Agree.

In the Link Accounts screen, search for your financial institution and then select the appropriate financial institution from the search results. Show me.

In the login screen, enter the username and password you use to access this account, and then click Submit. Show me.

The application displays the accounts associated with your login information. Review the accounts and verify that the account you want to link is listed, and then click Close. Show me.

In the next screen, if there are multiple accounts available, click the Link To This Account button for the financial account you want to link. Show me.

After the application successfully links the account, close your browser window.

Start using Bank Feeds

After your client successfully links their financial account to Accounting CS, the application sends you an email message to let you know that the account has been linked and is ready for you to use Bank Feeds!

Updating a linked account

If your client has already linked their account, but the information is outdated or needs to be updated for any reason (for example, the password or multi-factor authentication questions need to be updated), you can use the Bank Feeds - Update Account dialog to request that the client update their account information. This dialog opens automatically when you attempt to retrieve data in the Bank Feeds portlet and Accounting CS determines that the account information needs to be updated.

In the Return Notification Email Address section, enter the email address for the staff member in your firm who should be notified when the client has finished updating their account information.

Click OK.

The application sends an email to the client requesting that they update the account information. Instruct your client to click the Update Now button in the email and then to follow the steps in the screens that guide them through the process. The staff member specified in step 2 will receive an email message when the account has been updated.

Related topics

Internal notes

At this time, some users are having trouble linking bank accounts if they have multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled for their Thomson Reuters ID. We need to encourage them to continue using their strict security protocol. They should not disable MFA just so that they can use Bank Feeds. TR highly encourages all firms and clients to use MFA to protect their data. Development is working on a solution resolve to this conflict with Bank Feeds.

Some users have also had trouble linking accounts if the client’s bank has implemented MFA. Again, we must recommend that they do not disable MFA on the bank’s side either. As we find out which banks and financial institutions are not compatible with Bank Feeds linking, TR is working with those institutions to make them compatible.